How do you go from the happy-go-lucky feel of Skid Row to the crunching monster that is Slave to the Grind? There was attitude on the debut, but it was the attitude of teenagers taunting adults from a safe distance and then running away laughing. That’s not what is thrown at you on this album. The attitude here is from a confident adult who isn’t afraid to stand their ground and be seen for what they are saying. That attitude on the first album is increased tenfold here on the sophomore effort.
From the first time I put on the album I was transfixed. I had expected something similar to what the band had produced with Skid Row, but I was very much mistaken. The opening scream at the start of “Monkey Business” was just the beginning. But it is that guttural guitar riff and rolling drum beat opening on the title track “Slave to the Grind” that topped it all off and really gets you in. Fast and heavy, and that chunking guitar riff that blows the speakers apart. This was no hair metal band singing about the youth going wild or wanting to remember you, this was a bonafide heavy metal band exploding onto the scene with a presence and heaviness that could not have been predicted.
Some songs may have a similar structure and sound - “Psycho Love” and “Creepshow” I can still confuse before I start singing the lyrics and realise which song it actually is – but the mixture throughout is one of the strengths. The album doesn’t go hard for the duration, nor does it let you stop and wallow in the slower and more reflective moments for long enough to stop the album’s momentum. Every outstanding aspect of the band shines through in the songs and track list as it is set out.
The songs and music written for this album are just brilliant. Heavy riffs perfectly woven by Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill and driven by the hard hitting rhythm of Rob Affuso on drums and the added huge bottom end from Rachel Bolan on bass. Bolan and Sabo were again the main songwriters for the album and their growth over the previous two years is obvious in the songs they have collaborated on.
But the star attraction of the album is still the amazing vocals of Sebastian Bach. He is what makes this album so brilliant, because his versatility and range and ability to stretch from the heaviest vocal track to the highest rock ballad without compromising his harmony and pitch is pure gold. The vocal especially in “Living on a Chain Gang” is just superb. It drives that song to new heights, while the supporting vocals underneath perfectly offset Seb’s tangents. And then his performance in those angry tracks such as “Get the Fuck Out” and “Riot Act” shows great strength and purpose.
Even the hard rock ballads they produce are difficult to dislike, as Seb’s vocals roll like oozing honey out of the speakers at you. This is especially true of “Quicksand Jesus” and “In a Darkened Room”, two songs that I would usually have trouble enjoy but have no qualms about while listening to Seb singing them, while his vocal on the closing track “Wasted Time” is reminiscent of that on “I Remember You” from the first album, but with a greater authority and maturity than that song. Superb.
This should have been the springboard to a massive future for Skid Row as a band. Having come in with a hair metal confidence they had progressed to a real heavy metal attitude with this release, and set themselves up to become as big as they could possibly be. And then it went pear shaped. Whether it was the tension within the band or just the fact that music went through such an enormous upheaval with grunge and then hardcore changing the landscape, Skid Row never again produced anything like this album. For me it was one of the great tragedies of the 1990’s.
Best songs: “Slave to the Grind”, “Get the Fuck Out”, “Livin’ on a Chain Gang”, “Riot Act”.
Rating: “A hungry politician is the wolf that's at the door.” 4.5/5
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